3 Drawers of a Chest

As a political, humorous, ironic and creative means of participation, sharing, interaction and communication, Graffiti and Street Art has been using the public sphere as a medium since the 1970s. ADEKAN, ARES and CİNS, three street artists known by their active and creative interference in the public sphere of Istanbul since the mid-2000s, turn the architecture of Kasa Galeri into a common narrative platform in "Three Drawers of a Chest". The artists treat Kasa like a chest of secrets with its architectural memory, subterranean passages, and three interconnecting vault rooms. Each artist fits his own universe in a room, separating the vault, while drawing paths that connect with each other by virtue of a common narrative. The paths that connect the rooms become passages among the individual universes of ADEKAN, ARES and CİNS, embodying the concept of "visual kinship". These paths guide the viewers through the intersecting, diverging and colliding aspects of the independent visual languages employed by the artists as they grab their invisible stories off the street and hide them inside a chest.

"To some, roads are waiting, perhaps an ache in the foot, an illness. Being stuck inside. The road is a boundless concept, it knows no end. Sometimes it is going all the way, other times it is cutting everything short. Perhaps it is exactly that feeling of in-betweenness. Looking for a road to take... Not knowing where the road will take you. An endless adventure. Going, staying, seeing off, and every little mark these leave on a person. Finding a road, yet fearing to take it. The clear, sharp, determined marks we leave on rails, roads, fields as we find ourselves trapped in the nightmarish outdoors that we crave. Everything is a part of this journey, what we see and what we don't. Are the reflections on the glass real, or are they a dream? Everything hits hard and heavy like a train. Sharp like a knife. Being on the road... Being a human." ADEKAN/ARES/CİNS

ADEKAN (1991, Istanbul)

Adekan uses stencil, art and graffiti as a mode of expression in the public sphere, and took part in the MOAS (Meeting of All-Stars) graffiti performance in 2013. He was a part of the Marmara University hallway exhibition and Bazaart exhibition in 2014, and the "Dağınık" exhibition at Boğaziçi University in 2016. Adekan's images of dream and reality, fantasy and real life, time and travel were most recently featured in ICAF (Istanbul Comics and Art Festival) 2017, the 18th “Belgelik” exhibition, and “İçerinin Dışarısı”.

ARES (1990, Balıkesir)

Having used graffiti as a form of protest until 2014, Ares then turned to street art and took part in the “Meeting of All-Stars” 2009-2014, “Indie Line” Sümer Art 2015, “Köprü Project” 2015 and Boğaziçi University “Dağınık” 2016. In 2016, Ares was invited to Mamut Art Project, Mural Istanbul and ICAF, and later took part in the “Kontrolsüz Patlama” and “Tight Aggressive” exhibitions in 2017.